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Fire Breath
Fire Breath is one of the many Unit Abilities found in Master of Magic. With this ability, a unit making a voluntary Melee Attack starts this attack with a blast of Fire Damage. It is one of only two Breath Attacks available in the game (the other one being Lightning Breath). The Attack Strength of the Fire Breath ability is noted after its name (e.g. " Fire Breath 30"). This indicates the maximum that it can cause (per in the unit), though this is subjected to rolls and the target's rolls. There are 12 units in the game that possess a Fire Breath attack by default. 7 of these are Normal Units (almost all from the Draconian Race), 4 are Fantastic Units from the , and one is a Hero. The has the strongest Fire Breath by far - at a whopping ! The spell can also be cast on a Normal Unit or Hero, and may have some chance of adding the Fire Breath attack to that unit. However, Fantastic Units cannot acquire Fire Breath if they don't already have it. There are many different modifiers in the game that can increase the strength of a unit's Fire Breath. The available modifiers differ based on the unit's type, however, none of them can modify the Attack Strength of Fire Breath gained through . Description Fire-breathing monsters have long haunted the nightmares of humans in our world - but in the world of Master of Magic they are quite real. Not only that, but certain races (evolved from fire-breathing dragon ancestors) take this ability for granted. Fire Breath offers a great way for a combatant to start its attack. Only those enemies who aren't burned to a crisp by this deadly breath will be able to stand up to their attacker in hand-to-hand combat. Thus, the creature delivers a preemptive strike that can weaken its opponent considerably. Effect Fire Breath is automatically used whenever the unit voluntarily makes a Melee Attack against an opponent. Before the unit commences its actual attack, it will unleash a Breath Attack delivering a certain amount of Fire Damage. This occurs before any other exchange of damage or other attacks between the unit and its target. It precedes Gaze Attacks, Touch Attacks and any exchange of actual Melee Damage. As a result, any in the enemy unit that is killed by the Fire Breath does not get to retaliate at all - it is already dead by the time its unit begins the retaliation (that is, if the unit even survived). This confers a great deal of protection to the Fire Breath unit: if it can kill a large number of enemy (or all of them) with the Fire Breath, the target can return very little damage at it. The Breath Attack itself is carried out in a similar fashion to a regular attack. The Fire Breath unit makes a number of rolls equal to the strength of its breath attack. The target then gets to make rolls to try and block some of the incoming damage. Note that Fire Breath is not used when the unit is Counter Attacking to an enemy assault. It only works when the unit is the one initiating the Melee Attack. On the other hand, this ability allows a unit to engage a unit in melee combat, even if said unit is actually immune to fire. Immunities Since Fire Breath delivers Fire Damage, it is somewhat inferior to Thrown Attacks: Fire Damage can easily be blocked by either the Fire Immunity or Magic Immunity abilities. If the target possesses either of these, its Defense score is temporarily raised to for the purposes of blocking damage from this attack. Thus, even the 's impressive would cause only little damage to such a unit. Furthermore, Fire Breath is associated with the , and thus may be blocked partially or completely by the spells , , and . This last Enchantment actually has the same effect against Fire Breath as the immunities mentioned earlier. Units with Default Fire Breath There are exactly 12 units in the game that possess Fire Breath by default. 7 of these are Normal Units, 5 of which belong to the Draconian Race, which has Fire Breath as one of its racial traits. 4 other units are Fantastic Units from the , many of which can deliver quite devastating Fire Breath attacks. Finally, there is Fang the Draconian, a mid-tier Hero. Normal Units Fantastic Units Heroes Fang the Draconian - Fire Breath 5''' * These units are almost always created with one extra , which gives them an extra . ** Draconian Engineers are not available in version 1.31 of Master of Magic. The has the most powerful Fire Breath ability, but it's important to remember that , including the , deliver a Fire Breath attack of the listed strength per each live , giving them a greater overall potential for damage (though not against heavy ). Acquiring Fire Breath The only way to add the Fire Breath ability to a unit that does not already possess it is via the effect. This can be obtained either through the spell of the same name, or as a result of the Global Enchantment . Chaos Channels is an Uncommon Instant Spell that can be cast on friendly Normal Units and Heroes; all other units, including the Undead, and units already affected by Chaos Channels, are invalid targets. The spell may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of . It has two effects on its target: # Adding one (and only one) of three powerful bonuses at random. # Permanently associating the unit with the . One of the three available bonuses is Fire Breath '''2. It is only available for selection by the spell if the unit does not already possess a Ranged Attack or Fire Breath ability - otherwise another bonus will be selected. On the other hand, if the unit had the Thrown ability before this change, a new Fire Breath ability will replace this entirely. This may be seen as somewhat disappointing, since there are no immunities that avert damage, and they are also easier to improve. However, it's worth noting that players using the unofficial Insecticide patch do not have to worry about this oversight, as it forces the game to choose a different effect for Thrown units instead (as it normally does for every other type of ranged attack). Once a unit has been altered by , its new Fire Breath ability is entirely permanent, with a fixed Attack Strength of 2'. The spell requires no additional Upkeep Costs, and the change to the unit may never be undone. Doom Mastery is a Very Rare Global Enchantment that can be cast on the overland map for a basic Casting Cost of . While this spell is in effect, whenever a new Normal Unit is produced in any of the caster's towns, will automatically apply on that unit - for no extra charge. The resulting effects on the unit are identical to those described above. Improving Fire Breath There are several methods of improving a unit's Fire Breath. The availability of these depends on the type of unit involved, and may affect either the ability's Attack Strength, chance , or both. Experience First and foremost, for Normal Units and Heroes, the strength of the Fire Breath ability will improve as the unit gains . It is one of the only Unit Abilities in the game that does so. For Normal Units, Fire Breath improves at a rate of for every 2 levels - meaning at level 2 ( ), at level 4 ( ), and at level 6 ( ). For Fang the Draconian, the Fire Breath ability improves by for every (above first). Experience further improves these units' chance , and this will also apply to Fire Breath. Each represents an extra 10% chance per Attack Strength to cause (on top of the base 30%). For Normal Units, this attribute improves by at every level above 3rd (only the first of which can be obtained without the Warlord retort or spell); while Heroes gain a natural on every 3rd level instead (up to a maximum of at level). Unlike modifiers to Attack Strength, modifiers do apply to the Fire Breath of units, and present the only practical way of improving this attack. Heroes The Might ability ''does not increase the strength Fire Breath. However, Leadership does help - it can increase not only a Hero's own Fire Breath, but also that of any Normal Unit or other Hero accompanying them into battle. However, Leadership has no effect on either Fantastic or units, making Fang the Draconian the only actual Hero whose Fire Breath can ever benefit from it. With the basic version of Leadership, this bonus is , and starts to apply once the Hero reaches Level 6 ( ). It does not improve beyond +1. Heroes with Super Leadership attain the same bonus at Level 4 instead ( ), and can improve its magnitude to if they manage to reach Level 8 ( ). bonuses from the Blademaster (or its Super version) and Lucky abilities both apply to a Hero's Fire Breath attack. Akin to natural modifiers, this holds true even for Fire Breath gained through . Most Magical Items have no effect on Fire Breath. The exception is Jewelry, which can be enchanted to provide an all-round Attack Strength boost. This affects every type of attack that the Hero makes, including . On the other hand, bonuses on such an accessory do not apply, unless the game is played using the unofficial 1.40 Insecticide patch (or later). Node Aura Bonus Whenever a Fantastic Unit of the Realm enters battle in a Chaos Node or its area of influence, it will enjoy an Aura Bonus granted by the Node. This also applies to any Normal Unit or Hero mutated by the spell (see above). The bonus is transient however: it applies only while the unit is doing combat within the vicinity of the Node. It is not applied when doing combat anywhere else. This Node Aura bestows a '''+2 bonus to many of the properties of any Creature affected by it. This includes the unit's Fire Breath, if it has one. It's a small bonus, but is nonetheless welcome - and can be quite beneficial to Fire-Breathing , for whom the bonus is applied to each 's attack. Chaos Surge is a Very Rare Global Enchantment with a base Casting Cost of , and a relatively high Upkeep Cost of per turn. This is for good reason though: as long as this spell is active, any (or ) creature entering battle anywhere in the game world (on either plane) receives a +2 bonus to all of their Attack Strengths, including a to Fire Breath. This effect is fully cumulative with the Node Aura described above, effectively doubling its magnitude with respect to Attack Strength. The only downside of this spell is that it indiscriminately applies to both friendly and enemy units. However, two instances of the spell (cast by different Wizards) do not stack, the effect will only be applied once per battle (but will always affect both sides). Hurting an Enemy's Fire Breath There are several spells in the game that can reduce the strength of an enemy's Fire Breath, thus reducing the danger from that enemy unit. This is the only area where Fire Breath actually has an advantage: its fixed Attack Strength of 2 is not subject to any of these reductions either. Spells and Abilities affecting Fire Breath Effects that decrease the Attack Strength are listed separately in the table above. Category:Abilities